Good, bad, and ugly from the Packers’ victory over the Bears

We recap the good, bad, and ugly moments from the Green Bay Packers 21-13 win over the Chicago Bears.

Another week, another ugly win for the Green Bay Packers. After beating the Washington Redskins in a somewhat sloppy affair last week, the Packers won what could be an even uglier game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Lambeau Field. Green Bay looked to be in command late in the third, but an inconsistent offense allowed Chicago to get back into the game. Despite the way they won, the Packers are still 11-3, and still have an inside track at the two seed in the NFC and the NFC North.

Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the Packers’ 21-13 win against the Chicago Bears:

The Good

  • Kenny Clark: Earlier in the season, many thought that Clark wasn’t playing up to snuff. Clark got healthy and has continually proved his doubters wrong, including Sunday. Clark finished the game with eight tackles, two sacks and three tackles for a loss. He was nearly unblockable by anyone on the Bears offensive line, especially early on.
  • Za’Darius Smith: The captain of the Packers defense continues to deliver even when he isn’t stuffing the stat sheet. Smith finished with just one tackle, but was once again huge in forcing pressure. Late in the 4th quarter, Smith’s pressure on Trubisky is what forced him to throw into Dean Lowry, who came away with the interception. Smith continues to be worth every single penny the Packers gave him, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see his efforts result in a Pro Bowl berth.

  • Dean Lowry: Lowry didn’t have an incredible game, but his interception on Trubisky late in the fourth was big for a Packers defense that looked tired. The Bears were able to stop the Packers from scoring any points, but the interception resulted in almost three minutes coming off the clock, which was huge for the Packers.
  • Third Quarter Offense: The Packers offense was pretty rough throughout most of the game, but in the third quarter, things looked as good as they could be. After coming out of the half with the ball, the Packers scored on their first two drives, needing just ten plays to go extend their lead from 7-3 to 21-3. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay this good, but the Packers offense continues to have brief moments where it looks to be clicking on all cylinders.

The Bad

  • Aaron Rodgers: There’s no other way to see it, Aaron Rodgers was incredibly disappointing on Sunday. Rodgers needed 33 attempts to throw for 203 yards and made a couple of throws that easily could have been turnovers. Once again, he continues to be able to make a handful of plays that can spark the offense, but his play as of late has been anything but the otherworldly stuff that fans expect.
  • Marquez Valdes-Scantling: The second-year receiver dropped what would have been a 70-yard touchdown on the Packers’ first play from scrimmage. He didn’t see another target the rest of the game. MVS has two catches for 11 yards over the last six games.
  • Not capitalizing on turnover chances: The Packers finished Sunday’s game with two interceptions and six pass breakups, but the numbers could have been even larger. For most of the game, Mitchell Trubisky threw at least seven or eight passes that could have been intercepted by the Packers. While they weren’t able to make the plays now, it would be nice to see them capitalize on their opponents’ mistakes more.
  • Penalties: The Packers continue to shoot themselves in the foot in big moments. With the Bears backed up on a 3rd-and-15 and down 21-3, the Packers were whistled for defensive holding, which extended the possession and helped the Bears keep driving. Sunday’s game was actually relatively clean in terms of penalties elsewhere, but the Packers can’t let mistakes like that affect them during crucial moments.

The Ugly

  • Packers offense: The current state of the Packers offense is ugly, and there’s no way around it. Green Bay started the game relatively well, but once again couldn’t get anything going in the second quarter. Even after they got extremely hot in the third quarter, the Packers completely stalled. After going up 21-3 and forcing a Bears punt, the Packers offense produced just nine yards on 18 plays and punted all five times. The team seems to be able to achieve the high-level, uptempo style they aim to play at, but not for very long stretches. Whether it’s inconsistent play from the offense or Aaron Rodgers and Matt Lafleur not agreeing on playcalls at certain times, the Packers offense hasn’t looked playoff-ready in some time, and with two weeks left to play, there isn’t much time left to fix it.